KEY POINTS:
Foreign takeovers aren't always popular, but they've been nothing but good for Albany business Abel Software.
The unassuming company has used two foreign buyouts of Kiwi companies to win big international contracts. The most recent deal will see their software on thousands of desktops in Singapore, Australia,
Canada, the United States and Germany, and fund the company's first overseas expansion, into Australia.
Chief executive Peter Garnett laughs when you ask if he is the only person in New Zealand hoping for more Kiwi companies to be bought out.
"We like it", he jokes. "We just need to find some more companies that can be taken over!"
Abel has kept a low profile since 1996, when it was founded by software engineer Allan Baird.
He wanted his business-management software to be rock solid before he did any marketing. So far, publicity has been limited to word-of-mouth and some networking by a local distributor.
Luckily, international companies have found Abel all on their own.
The company won its biggest ever deal, a multi-million dollar contract with American linen and uniform hire company Alsco, after the US firm took over New Zealand Towel Supply. The Kiwi towel company had been looking at Abel software and asked Alsco headquarters if they could use the product. Alsco bosses happened to be looking for new software, and were so impressed that they decided to use Abel in all 140 branches worldwide.
It was a turning point for the company, but not the first time a takeover had worked in their favour.
Abel's biggest Australian client, Inventis, discovered the product when it took over furniture company Damba.
The South Auckland manufacturer already had Abel installed and its new bosses were so impressed that they decided to install it in Australia too.
Abel's software now manages financial and manufacturing data for Inventis' furniture factories in Melbourne and Sydney.
Garnett says ERP, or enterprise resource planning, is a "fancy IT" name for what Abel does - making software to handle accounting, manufacturing, distribution and warehousing information.
The business might be named after an intrepid explorer, but aggressive expansion has never been high on the agenda.
Most of Abel's clients are small to medium-sized companies, many of them manufacturers. Abel's monthly payment system appeals to smaller companies who don't want the expense of buying a software licence outright.
Garnett's job now is to grow the company beyond its core clients - something that shouldn't be too much of a challenge for a man whose CV spans the airforce (he once commanded the helicopter squadron), road transport, health and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Baird asked Garnett to join Abel as CEO early last year, determined not to copy the mistakes of other software company founders who "tried to do everything". Garnett had already known Baird and his wife Jane Mattsen (also a director of the company) for a long time and acted as a sounding board during the business' difficult infancy.
Garnett remembers Mattsen starting a copy centre in the early days to help pay a small team of software developers. "That provided an income stream during those very early days, when the product certainly wasn't providing any income," says Garnett. "Those were tough days for the early team."
With six staff, Abel will never be a match for Oracle and SAP. But the Alsco deal was a turning point.
Mattsen was able to sell the copy centre, and the entire team relocated - first to Salt Lake City and then to Sydney - for almost two years to help Alsco implement the software.
Now, Abel is using the Alsco money to expand overseas. Garnett and Baird spent last week in Australia, hiring staff for a four-person office in Sydney. The company has half a dozen Australian clients and Garnett hopes the new Sydney sales manager will find more.
"We looked very carefully at where we should start and decided to do our first overseas venture in Australia," says Garnett. "We want to make sure our model for taking the business to a different country is right."
After Australia, the three directors will decide where to go next - America, Europe or Asia.
Meanwhile, Garnett plans to raise Abel's profile by getting its name in front of professional advisers who are willing to suggest the product to their clients.
This means doing some showing off but Garnett insists it will be done in a typically understated fashion.
"I think the big challenge for us now is to take a robust product and grow it," he says.
"The challenge now is to really get it out there."
